


Hanako

by DemonnPrincess



Series: Isekai de Banana ga Murasaki-iro Desu ka? [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Ghost Hunters, High School, Japan, Paranormal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 05:00:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13629126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DemonnPrincess/pseuds/DemonnPrincess
Summary: Four friends go to investigate the Hanako legend after one of the girls convinces the other three.





	Hanako

[Miyoshi, Tokushima, JAPAN]  
[June 3rd, 2008 - 15:33]

“They say that she was killed during the war many years ago, and that her wandering soul, unable to rest due to the violent nature of her death, remains lonely. If you summon her properly, she will answer your call-”

Naoki slapped her hand down on the desk that Mayumi and Reiko were sitting at, startling her three friends and stopping Reiko in the middle of her speech. “Every Saturday with this. Give it a rest already!”

Reiko sat back in her desk chair and laughed nervously, scratching the back of her neck. “But this one’s true, I promise.”

Naoki shook her head. “There’s no such thing as ghosts. They didn’t exist when you started getting obsessed in all that stuff back in first grade and they still don’t exist now.”

“Uh,” Mayumi signaled to Chika to say something, but Chika grabbed her math book and started pretending to read it so she wouldn’t have to get involved. “Thaaank you.” Mayumi sighed, reaching across the desk and petting Reiko on the head. “It was kinda scary this time.”

“I’m a puppy now?” Reiko whined. “Awe, man…”

“It wasn’t really scary.” Naoki joked.

Reiko playfully licked her tongue Naoki, reaching up and trying to tug at her short hair next. “Just because _you_ don’t believe in it doesn’t mean _I_ can’t.”

Naoki hopped behind Reiko and yanked on her braided pigtails, sticking her tongue back at her when she turned around and frowned. “I’m just messing with you. I’m a skeptic, but I’m not gonna let anyone tell you what you can or can’t believe in, no matter what you IQ level is supposed to be for a fifteen-year-old.”

Reiko smiled and nodded, then paused and gave Naoki a weird look. “Thank you...I think?”

“But I’ve actually heard of Hanako before.” Mayumi noticed a light chalk stain on her dark uniform sleeve from when she’d cleaned the erasers and patted it out. “I think she was a real girl.”

“All ghosts were once real people.” Reiko elaborated. “Wanna meet her?”

“No!”

Everyone turned and looked at Chika who immediately became nervous and covered her face with the book again. “…two n, minus the square root of seventy-si…”

“Really?” Naoki chuckled.

“It’s just,” Chika lowered her book to where only her eyes were showing. “it’s kind of dangerous to play around with spirits like that, you know?”

“I’m a professional at it though.” Reiko nodded to assure Chika. “I have never been able to contact any spirits in the past, but...and Hanako might be lonely and stuff…”

Mayumi scratched the bridge of her nose. “…I’ll go with you. I have to meet up with my art club in a bit, but I’d definitely like to try it out.”

Reiko’s eyes lit up. “Really?!” She grabbed ahold of Mayumi’s hands. “Thank you!” she whispered loudly, making her friends laugh. “This is gonna be so awesome.”

“I guess I’ll go too then.” Chika spoke next. “Do we have to go one at a time, or can we do it together?”

Naoki shook her head. “I’m not going in there alone.”

“Oh.” Mayumi gave Naoki a smug smile. “So you’re gonna come along?”

Naoki thought for a second, then she nodded, almost giving away her sudden, devious smile. “Yeah, I’ll come. I might as well. Just promise me that there won’t be any Ouija boards this time.”

“I promise.” Reiko answered. “You don’t need a Ouija board to contact Hanako, you just have to do the ritual.” She scooted her chair back and grabbed her briefcase before standing. “I have to meet up with my paranormal club too, but we can meet up here afterwards.”

Naoki nodded. “Yeah.” I’ll just stay here and study with Chika or something until you guys are done.”

“K.” Mayumi stood up, grabbing her briefcase as well. “I’ll be going then. We’re just having a small meeting, so I shouldn’t be too long.” She turned and started heading out with Reiko, who was going on and on about other local hauntings that her club members were thinking about investigating over the weekend.

Once the classroom door slid closed, Naoki snickered and pulled her cellphone out.

“Oh no.” Chika put her textbook down. “What are you about to do?”

“My little cousin is at my apartment for the entire week because she has no school this week and my aunt is busy out of town. I’mma have her come here with us.”

“How old is she?” Chika asked, concerned.

“She’s nine.”

“Wouldn’t that be a little much? Going on a ghost hunt with a bunch of high school girls…”

Naoki put the phone to her ear, smiling when her cousin picked up. “Hey, Hanako.”

“Your cousin’s name is Hanako?” Chika looked off to the side, listening to the faint ringing sound coming through Naoki’s phone speaker. “I see...this should be interesting…”

“Did you bring your favorite red skirt with you?”

“Yes.” her cousin could be heard answering.

“Hey, so wear that and come to the school. Wanna play a prank on my friends?”

 

 

Naoki sighed heavily, lying her upper body across her desk while watching the news on her phone. “Hanako, you’re gonna use up all of our chalk.”

“But I need to finish this!” Hanako squealed, jumping up and down in front of the blackboard. “It’s almost done, I promise.”

Chika grabbed three of her notebooks and sat them neatly in her briefcase. “They should be done by now, right?” she asked, glancing out the window at the disappearing orange sunrays. “I have to get going soon. I need to go to the store before I go to bed.”

“I dunno, they said they’d be here.” Naoki glanced at her phone when the BREAKING NEWS tune played. “Apparently we’ve got ourselves a dangerous murderer on the loose.” she mumbled, listening to the description of the man.

“Where was he last spotted?” Chika asked. “If he’s anywhere near, then maybe it’d be safer for all of us to stay at my apartment tonight since it’s just down the road.”

“He was somewhere in South-Western Honshu, so nowhere near us. It’s just for business men and others who travel between the islands a lot and probably have crossed paths with him. Maybe they’ve seen him or something.” Naoki clicked and changed the channel to another channel where a celebrity panel were seated at a long table and were trying out various foreign foods. “They’re just being cautious, but they needlessly creep people out like that. And then we’re not even allowed to talk about such things during school so…”

“Well, I think that’s good.” Chika stated, gesturing to Hanako who thankfully wasn’t paying attention to the conversation. “We should be worrying about our studies, not causing schoolwide panic by spreading ever-changing rumors about something we don’t really know much about.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Naoki agreed reluctantly, glancing up at the chalkboard. “Woow, you did a really good job!” she said enthusiastically.

“Thank you!” Hanako shouted, jumping up and down while pointing to the chalk sunflower she drew. “I made it for you guys! It’s Mommy’s favorite flower!”

“It’s beautiful.” Naoki smiled, feeling her phone vibrate. “Oh.” She sat up while reading the text she’d received. “They’re done! They’re coming!” She jumped up and ran over to Hanako. “Go to the stall now and hide in there. We’ll be there in a bit. Don’t forget okay? I’ll record it on my phone.”

“Roger!” Hanako yelled playfully, turning and darting out the front classroom door just as the back door slid open.

“We’re so sorry!” Mayumi sighed, her and Reiko trudging in. “Reiko’s club kind of…’took over’ our art club. Reiko and a few other members told our club about Hanako, so we all had to do sketches of what we think Hanako in the bathroom would look like.” Mayumi held up a large sheet, showing her painting of a small, shoeless child in a red skirt sitting in a Japanese-style toilet, her clothes and skin tattered and dirty. “I just thought, since she’s lonely and she supposedly died during the war that…”

Naoki and Reiko exchanged glances, then went back to staring at the painting.

“Oh,” Mayumi lowered the painting. “is it not good?”

“No, it looks perfect…” Naoki trailed off. “It just looks exactly like someone I know is all.”

Mayumi smiled, laying the paper on her desk. “Well, that makes me happy.” she smiled.

“Okay!” Reiko exclaimed, holding up a black device.

“What is that?” Chika asked.

“An Ovilus.” Reiko answered. “If there’re any electromagnetic fields in the bathroom when we start, this will pick them up. Spirits can manipulate this to communicate with us.”

Naoki nodded. “Isn’t that a toy though? It says ‘For Entertainment Purposes Only’ right there on the thing.”

“It still works.” Reiko puffed her cheeks out. “I’m testing it out as club president today for the first time, but many paranormal groups abroad have already shared their thoughts about it. In case Hanako can’t fully manifest, this will help us.”

Chika nodded again, turning to hide her smile and heading out into the hall. “Well, let’s go. I’m eager to see if this thing actually works or not.”

Mayumi followed Chika out, then waited for her other friends before they headed down the very dark hallway. “It’s a little creepy though.” She hugged herself, passing by the second-story bathroom on their floor. “I can hear movement above us.”

“That’s where _that_ bathroom is.” Reiko started becoming excited, switching the Ovilus on. “It’s not even after nine pm and it’s already starting it seems…”

“Your club ever find any other ghosts in the school?” Naoki asked, suddenly interested.

“We’ve found some orbs down in the science lab on more than one occasion.” Reiko flipped the Ovilus over, seemingly checking its specs more closely. “Apparently there was a fire caused by an explosion years ago which killed eleven students. Most of them died at the hospital, but three of them suffocated in the classroom. Maybe it was them?”

“Hm.” Naoki checked her phone battery, then went to her camera and hit record. “That’s awesome, actually.” she said, genuinely interested. "It's not awesome that they died, but it's awesome that you saw orbs there."

Reiko went ahead of everyone and started climbing the stairs first. “See? It’s interesting to be able to see into a dimension that you aren’t normally able to observe. It’s fascinating. I wonder what it truly looks like…” She felt a hand yank on her middy collar and she began toppling backwards. “Ah!” She threw her hands out to the side, grabbing onto the handrails and feeling all of her friends’ hands supporting her from behind.

“I just figured I’d help you get to the other world faster.” Naoki joked, hugging Reiko from behind and helping her stand back upright.

“You play too much!” Reiko screamed out, straightened her collar. “That wasn’t funny. I thought I was really falling.”

“That really wasn’t funny.” Mayumi agreed. “You and your pranks…what if we would’ve dropped her?”

Naoki looked back at Mayumi, then back forward and continued up the stairs. “I was just trying to lighten the mood…”

Chika giggled to herself. “That’s Naoki’s way of apologizing. It’s the best we’re going to get.” She waited until everyone stepped up onto the third floor and moved out of the way, then she climbed up. “It’s way darker up here. Why?”

“The third years have been going home earlier all this month, so there aren’t any lights on in any of the classrooms.” Reiko held her Ovilus out in front of her. “Anybody up here? Wanna talk to us?” she waited, but no words popped up on the screen. “I guess there’s no one in the hall.”

Naoki smirked, holding her phone up and recording Reiko’s actions. “Maybe they just can’t hear you.” she said slyly. “Why don’t you try speaking in backwards Latin?”

“Oh, haha.” Reiko held the Ovilus out a little further. “Just give it some time, you skeptic.”

Naoki shrugged. “I’m actually hoping something will happen. It’d be interesting.”

“INERESTING.”

Uh,” Naoki peaked over Reiko’s shoulder at the Ovilus screen. “it just said ‘interesting’ in English. Look, it actually says it on the screen! Why is it in English?”

“You see?” Reiko smiled back at her. “It works. And I had this shipped from America, so it’s only in English.”

“Or maybe it just translated what Naoki said and repeated it.” Chika mumbled quietly.

“Not you too…” Reiko held the Ovilus up over her head so Chika could get a good look at it. “It can’t just hear what we say. It works by picking up electromagnetic waves, _not_ sound waves.”

“I’m not saying ghosts aren’t real,” Chika elaborated. “I’m just saying maybe that piece of technology doesn’t work as well as you belie-”

“PLACE.”

All four of the girls stopped, giving each other strained looks.

“No one said that.” Naoki exhaled. “Okay, I’ll admit, that’s a bit freaky…we gotta get to the bathroom.”

“But the ghost is in the bathroom.” Reiko said. “Are you sure that’s where you wanna go?”

“BLACKBOARD.”

“Yeah, definitely.” Naoki pressed, looking back at Chika.

“TOILET.”

Naoki frowned down at the Ovilus. “Um…”

“You’re getting scared, aren’t you?” Mayumi teased Naoki. “For someone who’s always saying how ‘unscary things that don’t exist’ are, too.”

“I’m not scared, just a bit freaked out.” Naoki blurted out, hurrying to the girl’s bathroom door and pushing it open. “There’s a difference.”

Mayumi raised her eyebrows and nodded. “Whatever you say.” she joked some more, stepping into the bathroom.

The entire bathroom was dark except for a red fire light that was on in the corner, and one of the sinks had a leaking faucet and a small puddle of water polled at the bottom which attributed to the slow drip sound that sounded out every few seconds.

“It’s so cold in here…” Reiko walked in next, going and standing in front of the third stall door. “Okay, so who wants to do it?”

“Not me.” Chika made her way in, then went over and stood under the open privacy window. “I already said that this was a bad idea.”

“Let Mayumi do it.” Naoki spoke, coming in last and closing the bathroom door.

“What?!” Mayumi started waving her hands in front of her face. “Noo, nonono, no!”

Reiko held the Ovilus up again. “I actually wanted you to be the one too. You have the most maternal instincts out of all of us. Maybe she’ll respond to you.”

Mayumi looked around at all three of her friends who were smiling at her. “Oh God…” she stepped up to the stall and swallowed hard. “Any evil that may be in this room, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus…”

Naoki started laughing hysterically. “What are you doing?!”

“What does it look like I’m doing?!” Mayumi shot back. “I’m praying! You know I identify as Christian, so I do that. And also, you never know…” she raised her knuckles up to the stall door but froze.

Reiko stepped up closer to Mayimi. “You’re supposed to knock three times, then ask her the question.”

Mayumi, took a few deep breaths and rapped on the door three hard times. “…Hanako, do you wanna play?”

Naoki’s grin widened, but then slowly faded after about ten seconds. “Hanako?” she called out loudly, “she asked ‘do you want to play?!’”

There was an awkward silence in the room, all of the girls looking around at each other.

Reiko stepped back and pressed her hand on her chin. “Hmm…maybe it’s ‘Are you there?’.”

Mayumi glanced back at her, then knocked on the door three more times. “Hanako, are you there?” She waited again, and again nothing happened.

“Hmm…” Reiko frowned, thinking harder. “Or maybe you go to the forth stall…”

Chika pointed to the empty space next to her. “There is no fourth stall, Rei.”

“…huh…something’s off…maybe it isn’t the right time.” She nodded to herself. “Don’t let this reinforce your skepticism Naoki, these things take time.” She glanced up at Naoki, noticing a horrified look on her face. “What?”

“Hanako…” Naoki stumbled over to the stall and pushed on the door, then kicked it in and busting the lock off in the process when she realized it was locked from the inside. The stall was completely empty, except for the red skirt her cousin was wearing which lay sprawled over the urinal. “Hanako?!” she screamed, flipping around and looking around the bathroom. “Hanako!”

“She’s not here?!” Chika ran over to the other two stalls and pushed them open, finding nothing as well. “Did she know to come to this floor?”

“Who’s not here?” Mayumi grabbed Naoki’s shoulder to try and calm her down. “I don’t get it.”

Chika grabbed Naoki’s cellphone from her trembling hands and clicked out of the camera and into her contacts to find Hanako’s number. “She wanted to play a prank on you guys, so she sent her little cousin up here to pop out and scare you two when you summoned her. Her name’s Hanako too.”

“FLOWER.”

“The Ovilus is talking again.” Reiko flipped it around to show her friends.

“CHILD.”

“Flower Child?” Chika dialed Hanako’s number, but it went straight to voicemail. “What does that mean…and she’s not picking up…”

“Rei, turn the damn thing off! It’s just spouting nonsense!” Naoki went to the other two stalls and double-checked them, just to make sure.

“No.” Reiko pulled her own phone out and started typing in everything the Ovilus had said so far into her notes. “Don’t get mad at me because _you_ made the messed-up decision.”

Naoki growled, then stopped and calmed herself down. “Yeah, I know. I’m just scared is all.” She took her phone from Chika and tried dialing Hanako’s phone number herself, but it went to voicemail again. “The one time a child with a cellphone is actually useful and she forgets to charge it again…I keep telling her…”

“Whatever the case, panicking isn’t going to help anyone. Just try to stay calm.” Reiko stuffed the Ovilus in her shirt and stared down at her phone. “None of this is making sense.”

Naoki looked at Reiko, then down at her phone’s notes. “Why are you writing it all down? I told you myself it was complete nonsense.”

“Occupational hazard. It’s a good practice to do this, just in case we need to go back to something it said earlier. If I were doing a video or audio recording then I wouldn’t need to, but since I’m not this is the only way to keep a record of it."

Mayumi leaned over and looked at the notes too. “So…‘interesting’, ‘place’, ‘blackboard’, ‘toilet’, ‘flower’, and ‘child’. Yeah, that’s not making sense.”

“It’s not necessarily supposed to.” Reiko saved the note to make sure she wouldn’t lose it. “It’s merely to keep a log of everything it says.”

Chika stepped into the third stall and picked the skirt up. “Wait, if she never came here, then why would her skirt be here?”

Naoki started bouncing her leg to try and force herself to remain calm. “I didn’t even think of that…”

“Also,” Chika continued, “the Ovilus is only spitting out English words. If it were really working, wouldn’t it be in Japanese?”

“But there’re only English words programmed into its memory…” Reiko drew in air suddenly and started tapping away on her phone.

“What?” Naoki asked, using the GPS locater on her cousin’s phone to try and find her last known location.

“If I’m right…” Reiko mumbled, still typing.

Naoki sighed. “Rei, please. I promise I’m not being mean but…my cousin is lost somewhere in the school and it’s dark out, and we have her skirt so she’s somehow wandering around in her panties. If she wanders out of the school and gets lost then I’m gonna need actual help, not supernatural help.”

Reiko nodded, semi-ignoring her. “I know you don’t believe in this stuff, but _I_ do. For me, this is the best way for me to try and help.”

Naoki tilted her head and whined annoyedly, then finally gave in. “Okay, whatever. I’ll bite. What are you doing?”

“I’m translating all the English into Japanese. I just wanna see something.”

Naoki looked at the new Japanese list underneath the English one. “…‘omoshiroi’, ‘tokoro’, ‘kokuban’, ‘toire’, ‘hana’, and ‘kodomo’…okay? Now what?”

“Well, for starters,” Reiko’s hands started shaking. “How is Hanako’s name written? What kanji are used?”

“Um,” Naoki scratched her head. “my aunt used the symbols for flower and child…wait. No…” She backed up from the phone, a chill running up her spine. “Okay, _that’s_ freaky.”

“So that ‘flower child’ nonsense was actually sensical?” Chika looked down at the skirt. “What about the rest of the words?”

“Look!” Mayumi pointed to the first three words on the list. “How you have all of the words stacked like that! If you say the first sound of each word there, it makes another word.”

“O…to…ko…otoko…in English that’s ‘boy’.” Naoki held her palm up, looking at Mayumi with a confused look. “That doesn’t make sense either. Without any context it doesn’t, anyways.”

“O-to-ko-to.” Chika tried next, adding the next word in as well. “Or it could be…otoko toire. ‘Otoko toire’ is basically ‘danshi toire’.”

“Boys' restroom?” Naoki thought out loud. “Boys' bathroom, Hanako.”

“We go to the boys’ restroom then.” Reiko started heading for the door.

“But why?!” Naoki asked, following behind.

“Hush child, the Ovilus has spoken.”

Naoki balled her fists but Mayumi lunged in front of her and snatched both of her wrists before she could swing at Reiko. She looked down at Mayumi and saw her shaking her head very discretely.

“Stoppit.” Mayumi mouthed to Naoki.

Naoki rolled her eyes and snatched her arms back. “But why?” she repeated.

“It says so.” Reiko answered. “I mean, if she’s not there, then no harm.”

Mayumi sighed out of relief and patted Naoki on the back. “We might as well. Like she said, it won’t hurt to peak really quickly.” She started to pull the door open but heard the boy’s bathroom door slam open violently and she stopped. “What was that?” she whispered after a few seconds, hearing frantic footsteps coming towards the girls' bathroom.

The rest of the girls crowded around the door and peaked through the little space left by the slightly open door, all of them seeing an eye peering back at them. They all let out high pitched screams and fell backwards.

Mayumi wedged her foot in the opening and flung the door open in a panic, seeing a man dressed in all black except for his blue jeans, standing there with a butterfly knife in his hand.

“Ah!” Naoki screamed, scooting away from the door. “I-it’s that guy! From the news!” she stood up, getting an idea and putting her phone to her ear. “He’s here! We’re in the same room you told us to hide in! He’s here, hurry!”

The man’s eyes widened, and he turned and fled down the hall, his footsteps being heard going down the stairs and past the second floor.

Naoki dropped her phone and ran out to the boy’s bathroom. “Hanako!”

“Naoki!” Hanako’s voice called out, and seconds later the third stall in the boy’s restroom opened and a sobbing Hanako jumped out.

“Oh my God!” Naoki ran in and scooped her up. “Are you okay? Did he do anything to you?” She sighed when Hanako shook her head no. “I told you to always keep your phone charged!”

“I did!” Hanako whined back. “It was all the way full!”

Naoki stared at Hanako for a few seconds, then hugged her closer. “Yeah, okay. I don’t mean to take it out on you. It’s not your fault…why’d you go in the boys' bathroom?!”

“He saw me go up the stairs and started telling me to come to him, so I ran and hid in the bathroom, and then the girl told me to go to her other home in this bathroom.”

Naoki pulled her head back and looked over at Reiko. “Rei…”

“There’s another variation of the Hanako story.” Reiko said, walking over and helping Naoki put Hanako’s skirt back on then giving her back her cellphone that she picked up for her. “Boys can summon a similar ghost called Yousuke in their bathroom, but with that version of the story the summoner has to flee in three seconds or they’ll be killed.”

“Then how is Hanako okay?” Naoki looked her cousin over, then looked into the stall she’d ran out of and saw that the urinal on the floor was stained with blood. “Wait, what?!”

Reiko remained calm. She looked under Hanako’s uwabaki and saw that there was blood on the bottom of them. “The girl told you to walk around the toilet, huh?”

“Yeah!” Hanako shouted, wiping her eyes. “She told me to cover my eyes, and that when the man comes in to start running around the toilet while saying my name. My eyes were closed but it sounded like he got really scared and ran out.”

Reiko nodded, glancing up at Naoki.

“What?” Naoki looked back at the blood, then back at Reiko. “What’s the other variation? There’s another one, isn’t there?”

Reiko nodded again, then turned and went back into the hall. “…if I say it now, it’ll scare your cousin to death since she was so close to it.”

Naoki felt a chill and she scurried out of the bathroom next, no longer wanting to be near that stall. “Um, thank you? Hanako, if you can hear me.”

“HOW. DO.”

“How-do.” Reiko typed the words into her notes. “Dou suru…dou itasu…dou itashimashite. She’s saying ‘You’re welcome’.

Naoki walked over and snatched the Ovilus out of Reiko’s shirt to read the screen, not being able to believe it.

“SAFE. FLOWER. SAFE.”

Naoki dropped the Ovilus and ran to the stairs clutching her cousin, disappearing down them almost instantly, hearing Mayumi and Reiko erupting in laughter.

“That guy might still be in the building.” Chika warned, dialing the police.

“Oh!” Reiko grabbed her device and hurried to the stairs also. “I forgot about that!”

“No, look.” Mayumi pointed out of the hallway window at the guy sprinting out of the schoolyard. “Whatever happened, it must’ve scared him something fierce. He is out of here.”

Reiko stopped, almost falling down the stairs. “Oh. Well, as long as he isn’t here.” She heard Chika start speaking to an officer on the phone, so she glanced back at her, noticing that the boys’ restroom door was closed now. She smiled and nodded once, acknowledging both spirits’ presences.

“Guys?” they all heard Naoki calling from the bottom of the stairs. “Hey!”

“We’re coming.” Reiko called, heading down to the second floor and meeting a still terrified Naoki who was hurrying back into the lit classroom. “What?”

“Just come here.”

Reiko made her way back to the classroom, followed by her two friends. She went over to Mayumi’s desk and looked at her painting as Naoki was gesturing for her to do so. “It looks fine.”

“No, look.” Naoki pointed to two sunflower motifs on the painted Hanako’s ears. “Those. The earrings. I was so focused on my prank that I didn’t realize until just now.”

“Oh yeah.” Mayumi nodded. “That’s nothing paranormal. I just closed my eyes and pictured Hanako wearing flower earrings, since ‘flower’ is in her name and all.” She waited for Naoki to respond, but she just stared back at her with her jaw halfway dropped. “I…what?!”

Naoki tapped the earrings repeatedly, not being able to get any words out.

Mayumi groaned and looked at the earrings again. She pointed to the earrings as well, tracing her fingers over the kanji drawn in the flowers’ disks. “Those kanji read as ‘KONAHA’. When I was picturing Hanako in my head, I thought it’d be cute to use this name and put it on her earrings since it’s her name spelled backwards. Reiko’s club was talking about ‘ghost writing’ being backwards so I got the idea…” her voice trailed off when she saw that Naoki’s face expression wasn’t changing. “Okay, you’re scaring me now.” she mumbled, feeling uneasy.

Naoki pulled Hanako in front of her, then brought her shaky hands up to the little girl’s short, bobbed hair and pulled it back, revealing two sunflower motif earrings, both with the same kanji in the center.

Mayumi pushed her painting off of her desk and fell backwards. “Well, maybe it’s a coincidence.” she tried to rationalize. “Because there’s no way…”

Naoki shook her head. “My aunt’s name is Konaha. That’s exactly why she named her daughter Hanako because it was her own name spelled backwards.”

“Well maybe it isn’t an original idea.” Chika suggested. “Maybe we’re just scared and thinking that this is paranormal when there’s actually a real-world explanation. Lots of people do this with their children’s names.”

“No…” Naoki pulled the painting up from the ground and put it back on the desk. “My aunt got those earrings as a present when she was a little girl from her grandpa. They’re handmade from scratch. And what's more, he made a mistake when crafting them, so the left earring has five petals and the right one has seven. There’s no other pair like these in the world.”

Reiko leaned over and counted the petals on the painted earrings. “…yep. They’re exactly the same.”

“Eonni drew a picture of me?” Hanako picked the painting up and hugged it. “Thank you.”

“Is she Korean?” Reiko asked, laughing. “Eonni is a Korean expression.”

Naoki nodded. “She’s half Korean…that’s not gonna be another coincidence is it?”

“No. I was just wondering is all.” Reiko turned and saw Mayumi hurrying to pack up her things. “What’s wrong?”

“I gotta go.” Mayumi said with a panicked tone in her voice. “I’m dropping out of this school. I can’t.”

“Calm down.” Reiko rubbed Mayumi’s back. “It’s nothing to be afraid of. Or are you mad that she called you eonni?”

“No, not her!” Hanako exclaimed suddenly, grabbing everyone’s attention. “Not Mayu-san! The girl in the bathroom! I call her eonni! Eonni drew a picture of me!”

All four of the girls glanced around at each other, then snatched up their belongings and Hanako and bolted out of the classroom, leaving the light on.

“Oh Hell no!” Mayumi screamed, practically jumping down the stairs and zooming down the first-story hall and past the shoe lockers, running out into the yard with her uwabaki still on, noticing Reiko run right past her at a faster pace. “Reiko why are _you_ running?!”

“That’s not normal!” Reiko shouted, slipping and falling in the dirt but hopping right back up to continue running. “I’m not running from Hanako! I’m running from whatever the heck gave me that dreadful feeling!”

“Bye-bye eonni!” Hanako waved back at the high school in the dark, still being dragged along by Naoki. “Bye-bye!”

Naoki looked up at the second story windows and noticed that the lights where their classroom was located were no longer on. “I think I’m dropping out too.” she whined, her dread about to make her cry. “To Hell with school! I’m never going back in there!”

“We have a quiz on Monday.” Chika said loudly. “That’s scarier to miss than a spirit.”

“She’s right.” Reiko stopped and put her hands on her knees to try and catch her breath. “It’s nothing to be afraid of anyways.”

“Then why did _you_ run?!” Mayumi asked again. “If you’re not afraid, then go get my paintbrushes I left in there. Since you know how to communicate with the spirits and everything.”

Reiko glanced back at Mayumi, then stood upright and kept on walking. “I left my Ovilus in there too…I’ll just get a new one.”

“Seriously?” Mayumi laughed.

“I’m half joking.” Reiko swallowed. “Now that Hanako is preoccupied,” she said next, gesturing to the little girl who was staring at the painting in awe. “you wanna know what happens when you walk around the toilet three times while calling for Hanako?”

“Yeah.” Naoki walked a little closer to Reiko so she could talk quieter. “If you don’t I’m gonna invent something in my nightmares far worse than whatever it is.”

Reiko nodded. “Okay…if you do that, then a blood-soaked hand-”

“Nope.” Naoki slapped her hand over Reiko’s mouth and accidentally knocked her over. “Never mind, that’s way worse than anything I would’ve ever dreamed up. I don’t wanna know anymore.”

Reiko laughed at Naoki’s disturbed expression. “It’s interesting but suit yourself.” she said, shrugging.


End file.
